


Burns, Buses and Delayed Flights

by galaxy_houseplants



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Airports, Fluff, Hotel, Lance gets burned, M/M, Slow Burn-ish, delayed flights, idk how to tag, long haul flight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-03
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2019-06-01 17:37:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15148352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galaxy_houseplants/pseuds/galaxy_houseplants
Summary: Lance was seriously questioning what he did to God to end up here. It was 2 AM, he was on the other side of the world and he was almost out of New Zealand Dollars.





	1. the airport

**Author's Note:**

> aka the ‘it’s 2 AM and my flight is so very delayed’ prompt but they’re in New Zealand because of reasons (mainly bc i can write it bc it’s where I live)  
> lance gets second degree burns in chapter 1 so tw i guess?
> 
> also some italics indicating thoughts may not show up so i will try to fix that ASAP sorry if it is weird or confusing
> 
> anyway enjoy!

Lance was seriously questioning what he did to God to end up here. It was 2 AM, he was on the other side of the world and was almost out of New Zealand Dollars. His flight back to the USA was so very delayed, possibly cancelled, due to the horrendous wind and rain making the trees blow until they were almost horizontal and the waves splash higher than he’d ever seen. Wellington Airport wasn’t the worst place to be stuck; there were a few benches and the huge model of Gandalf on an eagle was pretty cool. However, he would have rather been on the plane home to his family whom he hadn’t seen in two months. The only interesting thing he’d done in the six hours he’d already BEEN there was flirt with a very attractive pharmacist who totally blew him off, so that was fun, but otherwise he’d been sat playing temple run on his phone.

 

As it was way too late for Lance’s internal clock, he decided to at least try to get some sleep. Digging through his bags, he found a bi pride flag he bought from the parade he attended while in New Zealand and draped it over himself. Laying down on a cushioned bench, he shut his eyes and tried to forget that he was lying on something thousands of butts will have sat on.

 

When he opened his eyes to briefly rearrange his shirt, Lance spotted the back of a familiar head out of the corner of his eye. He blinked to wake himself up, and looked closer. The guy’s hair was shoulder-length and black, and rang the bell of a forgotten memory in Lance’s brain. Gathering his things and shoving his flag-blanket into his carry on bag, he walked over to get a better look at the guy and immediately froze when he saw his face. It’s _Keith_. The kid who beat him at everything by just a little bit in grade school, meaning Lance got unnecessarily competitive and convinced himself he hated him. Keith was actually a pretty cool guy, maybe a little aggressive, but Lance was kind of an ass to him. Oh, no.

 

Lance only realised he had been staring when Keith turned around and startled him out of his trance.’

“Uh, can I help you?” asked Keith, looking at Lance like he vaguely recognised him.

“You’re Keith, right? I’m Lance, from seventh grade!” replied Lance, hoping that Keith remembered who he was and he didn’t look like a total idiot.

“Lance! What a coincidence. What brings you to New Zealand of all places?”

“Student exchange kind of thing. I was supposed to be on the plane home, but y’know, it’s crap outside, so it’s delayed.”

“Sounds great. I was volunteering, and I think we might have been on the same plane. Hell of a place to be, huh?” The two teens strike up a conversation (because I mean Lance may not have known the guy well but he needed to pass time until 5 and he was not going to get any sleep) and within a half hour they’d totally caught up.

“I have like no money left. I literally have $2.”

“I have $3 and the cheapest coffee here is $5. I need coffee in this dark time.”

“Hey, want to pool our money? Between us we can afford a highly average coffee from that fake Dunkin Doughnuts.”

“Sounds good to me! Let’s head over.” Keith and Lance left their bags on their seats (the airport was near-empty, their things would be safe enough) and walked over to the shop. They ordered a plain black coffee from the zombie-looking cashier, and grab two straws (because how else will they drink it without it being weird?).

“Oh my god, this may be the best thing I’ve ever tasted,” exclaimed Lance, slurping coffee with an over-dramatic moan, the lid of the coffee cast to the side. “It is, though drinking hot coffee through a straw is really weird. Also did you know that plastic straws are, like, the worst for the environment? I was volunteering with the department of conservation here, and I picked up way too many of these off beaches.” Keith continues to talk about his volunteer work, and Lance listens, too tired to get a word in. As Keith talks, he takes sips of coffee at the end of every sentence.

“Hey, coffee-hog, slow down!” Keith has managed to rapidly drink around half of what was left of the coffee. Lance pulled the cup towards him with a jolt, shaking the cup. The boiling hot, fresh coffee splashed over the rim of the cup and all over Lance’s shirt, making him squeal.

“Ow ow ow hot hot hot! Holy crap how is that coffee still so hot?” Lance pulled his shirt off over his head and fanned his chest with his hands. Startled, Keith threw the now-empty cup in the bin near them and jumped out of his seat.

“Oh my god, are you okay? There’s a pharmacy at the airport, we can grab you some burn cream, I’m sorry, how did that happen?”

“You shouldn’t be sorry, I tried to snatch the coffee, but yes can we go and get something please?” The two boys, now wondering how the hell they got into this situation, stowed their bags in some locker things and quickly walked to the pharmacy, hoping Lance wouldn’t be stopped for being shirtless in an airport. Also, now he’s over being startled, Keith became very aware that Lance was semi-naked. He looked straight (haha, he’s really not) ahead and tried to forget about it.

The receptionist at the pharmacy is a cheerful-but-tired looking lady a little older than them with dyed white hair. Her name badge reads ‘Allura’, and she smiles at the flustered high-school kids. Oh, no, it’s the lady Lance flirted with. Of course. Because this needed to be harder.

“How can I help you two?”

“Well, I just spilled boiling hot coffee all over my chest can I get some burn cream please?” Lance says, gasping for breath at the end of his sentence. The burn was already starting to blister and sting, and both Keith and Allura looked more concerned about this than Lance.

“That looks bad, I can get you some cream but I think you should see a doctor. Have you applied cold water?”

“No, we don’t live here, we don’t really have anything,” Keith says to Allura before turning to Lance. “Do you have any US Dollars? There’s a currency converter if we need to buy anything else.”

“Yes, Keith, I’m not totally broke, I just didn’t want to change three dollars for a coffee.”

“Uh, anyway, the nearest place you can get help is probably the doctor’s office in the nearest suburb, but that’ll be closed… the only place open at this hour is probably the hospital. It’s about a quarter of an hour’s drive if you get an Uber.” Allura made an early-morning trip to the hospital in a foreign country sound super fun, but it seemed to be Lance’s only option, as Keith noticed that he was now near tears.

“Thank you, I think I will have to go there. Keith, I’ll just go and grab my stuff, it was great to catch up!”

“Hey, I can come with if you want. It’s that or me being lonely and playing on my phone for three hours. We most likely won’t miss our flight.”

“That would be great, man, thank you! I’ll call an Uber. It won’t take long.” The Uber took over an hour to arrive for an unexplained reason. For Lance, this was an hour of intense stinging all over his chest and stomach making him rather antsy, but for Keith, this was another hour spent not on his own. When they finally arrived at the hospital, there seemed to be an influx of people with more serious injuries than Lance’s huge burn (“It’s not fair, Keith, we have a flight to catch!”), and it was another hour and a half before he was seen.

The doctor was a tall, buff, uncomfortably attractive guy of about 25, with a strip of white hair at the front of his head. He introduced himself as Shiro, gently wiped away the cream with a damp cloth so he could take a closer look at the burn (making Lance blush), and confirmed Lance’s suspicions.

“You’ve got a second-degree burn. It’s not too serious, but as it’s so big you’ll need to have it covered with a bandage. It’s going to sting, but it should heal up OK as long as you change the bandage twice a day. How did this happen?”

“Lance spilled coffee all over himself. It was kind of funny. But the coffee was very hot, and we had no water so it blistered up a ton.” Keith explained that they were both American high school students with no parents here, and Shiro, understanding, went away to grab some bandages.

As Keith and Lance waited, they realised that their flight leaves in half an hour and they were nowhere near being back.

“Crap crap crap! Let me check the website, we might be able to check in at the last minute- and we’ve missed it. Check in closed five minutes ago. I’m so sorry Keith, this is my fault!”

“Hey, it’s okay, we can book another flight. They might be cheaper if we get one for the early morning tomorrow, maybe. I have a friend. She may be able to help us with this.”

That was how they ended up on a Skype call with Pidge. She was the only person Keith knew who could find the codes to get cheaper flights on just about every airline you could think of. As Shiro bandaged up Lance, Keith quickly filled in Pidge on the situation.

“I can get you flights for tomorrow at 4 AM following the same route you were meant to take. You’ll have to get a hotel booked, I can do that too if you want, just Venmo me the money. Is Lance going to stay with you or is he separate?”

Keith wasn’t sure what to say. He had certainly warmed up to Lance, and may or may not have had a crush on him when they knew each other in grade school. Now they had been through a really weird morning together, and seeing Lance shirtless had certainly made him sit up and remember what he felt way back then.

“If Lance is happy to and it’s cheaper, we could get a double room maybe. Lance, would that be OK with you?”

It was definitely OK with Lance. Keith bought a coffee with him, came with him to the hospital and didn’t get too mad at Lance for making them miss their flight. He was nice, wasn’t annoyed by Lance like a lot of people are, and generally seemed like a really nice guy. _And you still find him as attractive as seventh-grade Lance did way back then!_ , said a little voice in Lance’s brain. _Shut up!_ Lance told it.

“Totally! Sleepover!” Lance laughed. Maybe this situation wasn’t so bad after all.

“Great,” said Pidge through Keith’s phone. “I’ll text you the details, it’s all booked. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

“Pidge, you’re the least responsible person I know-“

“Did I stutter? Have fun, kids, see you soon!” Before Keith or Lance could say anything in response, she had hung up the call.

“You’re all set, Lance. It should be free for you as you’re under eighteen, but if you need any pain meds they’ll cost a little,” Shiro explained as he packed away the rest of the bandage and antiseptic cream.

“I should be okay with the paracetamol I already have, thank you,” Lance stood and pulled on another shirt from his bag. “Keith, whereabouts is the hotel? Also I am so hungry let’s get some food.”

“Hotel’s in the city. Like twenty minutes from here. We can get a bus, it’s cheaper.” As Lance looked up bus times on his phone, Keith thanked the doctor and the two of them walked out onto the street, ready to head to the hotel.


	2. the hotel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so here’s chapter two bc idk about you but i filter things by ‘complete only’ so people might click this if it’s done
> 
> also fixed my italics yay!

The bus was packed with people. Like seriously, how did this many people even live in this tiny city? Keith and Lance paid the driver and pushed their way into the crowd of people. The bus lurched into motion and Lance lunged for a pole to hang on to, accidentally elbowing a middle-aged woman in the shoulder. As she muttered about the youth of today, Lance looked around for Keith, whom he had lost in the hustle of the bus.

Keith wasn’t having a much better time. He had fallen over into the lap of an older man, shot up to apologise and smacked himself in the face with a pole. Rubbing his forehead, he looked around for Lance and finally made eye contact. They awkwardly shuffled their way over to each other and quietly exchanged condolences for each other’s situation.

“Are you okay, man?” asked Keith, still pressing a hand to his (bruising) head.

“Physically? Yes. Emotionally? No. That lady hates me now. I’ve been on this bus two minutes and already made an enemy.” Keith laughed at Lance’s words. His laugh was bright, a stark contrast to his fairly intimidating and emo appearance. Lance was taken aback, and while he was distracted by his gay thoughts, the bus jolted to a stop.

Because he was distracted and not focusing on staying vertical, Lance toppled over and fell into Keith. Keith was pushed into the side of the bus where people put bags, with Lance pressed against him. Their faces were inches apart. As they both came to their senses and realised what happened, they quickly separated, blushing and apologising. _Oh my god,_ Lance thought, _I like Keith. He most likely doesn’t like me though, and now he’s seen how much of a damn idiot who can’t stay standing on a bus I am. Great._

After another fifteen minutes of awkward jolts (though both Keith and Lance managed to stay upright), they had arrived at their hotel. It was a nice enough place, several stories high, and in the centre of town. Next door was a McDonald’s and a clothes shopping place. Upon entering the hotel and checking in, Keith became suspicious that Pidge had done something strange. The main reason behind this was that Pidge had booked them a double room. Keith couldn’t quite remember the difference between a double and twin room, but he was pretty sure that double meant one bed for two people. This was going to be super fun.

Keith and Lance dragged their suitcases into their hotel room. When they entered, Lance dropped his things where he stood and ran into the centre of the room. They were stood in a lounge area with a three-seater sofa and television. Off to the side was a bathroom, and another door leading to what looked like a bedroom.

“Damn, what is it about hotels that’s so weirdly fun? Also, there’s got to be at _least_ three rooms here, because the bathroom is seperate from this lounge and the bedrooms are through there. Wow, how much did Pidge spend on this?”

“Right, the bedrooms,” said Keith distractedly. “Let me go and see what those are like.” Keith stepped through the bedroom door, leaving Lance draped across the sofa, and froze in the doorway.

He was right. There was one bed between the two of them. So here he was, spending the night in the same bed as his crush who he had now seen shirtless and whom had fallen against him fifteen minutes earlier. And the bed isn’t big for two people, no bigger than a double, they’re going to be _so_ close, and-

“You okay, man? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Lance’s words shook Keith out of his panic.

“Yeah, uh, you might want to come in here.”

“So you _have_ seen a ghost! Or is there a dead body or something- oh, no, it’s one bed,” Lance laughed nervously, not used to sharing beds with anyone, romantically or platonically (as this was _strictly_ _going to be,_ Lance tried to tell himself) “Sucks to be you, I tend to spread out. Apologies if I accidentally, like, kick you or something. We don’t have to actually sleep for long next to each other ‘cause we have to be at the airport again by 4. It’ll be fine!” By this point Lance wasn’t sure if he was talking to Keith or himself.

By the time the two of them had changed clothes (they both had coffee on their shirts and they’d been wearing their other clothes for way too long) and battled over who was sleeping on which side of the bed, it was almost lunchtime, and Lance was _hungry._

“McDonald’s, Keith? I’ll pay. It’s the least I can do to make up for us missing our flight.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Keith and Lance grabbed their things and headed down the elevator, out of the hotel lobby, and out onto the street. McDonalds had a huge line as it was just the right time for everyone to be having lunch, so the boys had to wait for twenty minutes in a queue out the door. When they finally got their order (a Big Mac and Coke for Lance, a salad and milkshake for Keith), Lance was on the verge of a breakdown from SO MUCH WAITING.

“What is it about _us_ that the universe keeps making us wait for things,” Lance whined to Keith, “it’s just NOT FAIR.”

“We just have terrible timing.”

“Also, what do you think is up with the double bed? Pidge must have known to give us separate beds. I mean, she probably just made a mistake, but it still seems odd.”

“Nah, Pidge never makes mistakes. I think she probably ships us, considering i told her that I liked yo-“

“What?”

“What? Nothing, uh, I just said she probably misclicked.” _Goddamn_ , why _did I have to accidentally say that?_ Keith thought. _Come on, Keith,_ he told himself, _Get it together. Just because you fell into him and almost kissed him and now you have to share a bed doesn’t mean you have to tell him these things!_

“Oh, okay. Hey, why’d you get a salad? You are the only person I have ever met who goes to McDonalds and orders a salad.” Lance asked.

“Hey, I like to be healthy! Guess it doesn’t bother you, mister ‘I-order-Big-Macs-and-still-have-abs,’ Keith said, devolving into mumbles by the end of his sentence. “Anyway, I got a milkshake to make up for it!” he added, taking the lid off said drink and stirring it before taking a sip.

This seriously shocked Lance, who was already coming to terms with his now-obvious crush when Keith said he liked to be healthy (which sent Lance’s mind to other places involving Keith at the gym, shirtless but _whatever_ ), but seeing him taking a sip from his milkshake was new, and make Keith look adorable, and even stranger, _pretty._ Lance wasn’t fond of referring to boys as pretty, but it had to apply here. ‘ _Ah,_ ’ Lance thought, ‘ _Why on Earth am I getting all hot and bothered when I see Keith of all people drinking a McDonalds milkshake? What is wrong with me? I am way in over my head._ ”

By the time they had finished lunch (and had about seven more awkward ‘oh-my-god-i-really-like-him’ moments, it was almost two o’clock.

“Hey, we’ve been hanging out for like, twelve hours straight. Are you sure you’re not sick of me?” asked Lance, only half joking.

“Nah, you’re fun to be out with. Hey, have you thought about how our flight tomorrow is like, 24 hours? Because I have. That’s way too long.”

“Says you! I have long legs! I do not fit in plane seats.”

“Was that a dig at my height i caught there?” Keith asked. He wasn’t entirely wrong.

“No, no, no, your height is cute, Keith.” ‘ _Please fling me off a cliff. I’m so whipped.’_ thought Lance, unable to stop himself from saying stupid things like ‘your height is cute’.

After a lot of walking around town and scrolling through Twitter while lying on their bed, Keith and Lance had finally eaten dinner (they got pizza to end their super healthy day) and were ready to finally sleep after the longest day ever.

“So, uh, how are we going to do this? I tend to spread out but I have ways to not do that.” Lance was more concerned about their proximity, but he couldn’t exactly _say_ things like that.

“I don’t mind, I curl up. We can just sleep back-to-back, it’s chill.”

It was not chill. Keith was just as awkward about this as Lance was, but they each saw each other as calm and collected. They quickly changed into pyjamas (normally Lance would sleep in boxers, but he threw on an Imagine Dragons t-shirt to make things less uncomfortable than they already were) and flopped onto the bed.

“So, Lance,” Keith said, “Do you think aliens are real?”

“What?” Lance turned over to face Keith, slightly confused by his question that had seemingly come from nowhere.

“Do you think they’re real? It’s after eleven, it’s time for Deep Talks.”

“I mean, we’re a tiny planet in a huge universe, there’s no way we’re the only sentient life. It’s selfish to think we are.”

“Yeah! Like, people who say we’re alone terrify me. Although, it’s almost scarier to think that there’s other life out there and we don’t know.”

“Hey, maybe we’ll be alive when they do find life.”

“Maybe we’ll be the ones to find it.” Keith smiled at the thought. “That’s what I want to do. Be an astronaut.”

“I’m sure you’d be a great astronaut. I mean, look at you, you’re ripped!” The words had slipped out before Lance could think about what he was saying. His eyes flicked to Keith’s chest under his white t-shirt and back to his face. They both blushed.

“What?”

“What? Uh, nothing.” Keith looked like he didn’t believe Lance, but brushed it off anyway.

“Okay, uh, we should probably sleep. We have to get up super early in the morning. What time’s our flight again?”

“Six thirty. We have to be there by five to check in because it’s international, though.”

“That is illegally early.” Lance chuckled at Keith’s words, blue eyes crinkling at the corners and cheeks showing dimples. For the second time in under a minute, Keith blushed. _And you are illegally cute,_ Keith thought. _I’m so gay._

“Yeah, we should sleep.” Lance turned over to face the wall on his side and Keith followed suit.

“Goodnight, Keith.”

“Goodnight, Lance.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha hope you liked part 2  
> the cuddling at the start was my favourite thing to write out of this whole fic it was so wholesome  
> also forgot to shout out my buddy ella for reading all of this and telling me what i could work on etc  
> you truly are like the author of my immortal’s friend raven
> 
> anyway my tumblr is @athenaklance 
> 
> part 3 up later or tomorrow!


	3. the plane (or homecoming)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here’s part 3!!

Lance was right when he said he spreads out in his sleep. In the five hours they were both asleep, the two boys somehow moved around so Lance was on his side facing in, closely alongside Keith, who was curled small, also facing in. When Lance was rudely awoken by a car alarm at one o’clock, they were both so warm and comfortable that it took him a second to realise what position they were in. Still drowsy from sleep, Lance only thought that it felt totally natural and curled tighter around Keith, throwing an arm over his waist, falling straight back to unconsciousness. Sleepily noticing Lance’s change in position, Keith slightly uncurled and loosely held on to Lance’s arm, turning to face away from him to fit better. So, in short, they looked like a couple, and they were cuddling. 

When they both woke to their alarm at three, Keith realised first how they were lying.

“Um. Lance. Hey.” Keith said, squeezing Lance’s arm to wake him up.

“God, Keith, I know the alarm went off, I hate mornings, it is too early for this- oh. H-hey.” Lance pulled his arm away from over Keith, internally freaking out over the close contact with his crush (he’s just going to accept it by this point) and externally laughing nervously.

“I don’t want to get up. You’re warm.” Keith said, voice rough from sleep.  _ That’s ridiculously adorable, oh my god, i don’t want to get up either if I can stay like this,  _ thought Lance.

“We have to, we need to get across town and round the bays and we have to be at the airport in two hours. Thanks, though, I’ve been told I am an excellent blanket. Sorry if the personal space invasion freaked you out, I didn’t know I was moving.”

“It’s fine. Like I said, you’re warm, this room is cold, it was nice. Ten out of ten, would recommend.” Keith extricated himself from the covers and went to the bathroom to get dressed. Lance quickly changed into skinny jeans and a t-shirt reading  _ ‘Bi and Ready to Die.’ _

When Keith came back, he was wearing a similar shirt reading  _ ‘Gay Men for Mothman’. _

“Hey, cool shirt! Did you get it at Pride here, I saw someone selling those.” Lance asked. 

“No, I bought it back in the States, yours is nice too!” Both of them were, again, having a minor meltdown inside, now knowing that it was  _ entirely possible for the other to like them _ , but busied themselves packing, brushing hair and teeth and pulling on shoes.

“I’ll call a cab. Ugh, I’m so ready to be home.” Lance said. 

“Same, although, this past day has been really fun? Like, I’m so glad you actually came and talked to me. Oh, I forgot, you should change your bandage, how’s your burn?”

“Feeling lots better, thanks, I’ll do that now,” Lance slowly unwrapped his bandages, wincing when the last few layers peeled off.  “Could you pass the burn stuff? Thanks.” Lance gently applied it all over his chest and started to wrap the bandages again, utterly failing to get them in the right place.

“Here, let me help.” Keith started gently adjusting the bandages so they covered all of the burns. Both of them blushed furiously, but almost before they wanted it to be, all of his blisters were covered and they were done and it was time to go. Piling into the taxi, they threw their suitcases in the trunk and told the driver where to go. Chatting about their time in New Zealand and what they wanted to do in the future and everything in between, it wasn’t long until they were on the plane ready to take off.

Pidge had booked them a long-haul flight that only stops once, briefly, for refuelling, and both Keith and Lance knew this, but when the pilot announced over the intercom that the flight would take a total of twenty and a half hours, they both groaned. 

“My legs are way too long for this! And we have to live off aeroplane food for, like, a whole day?!”

“I cannot stay still or sleep on planes. Well,  let’s make the best of the next 20 hours. Do we have movies?”

“Hell yes! What do they have?”

The in-flight entertainment was very limited. Keith and Lance ended up watching  _ Monsters Inc. _ , Lance quietly giggling every time Mike Wazowski spoke and outright wheezing at ‘put that thing back where it came from or so help me!’ 

“What? Why is that so funny?”

“Have you not been on the Internet for the last, like, five years?”

“No?”

“Okay, I’m showing you the meme. I have some saved to my phone, look!” After around half an hour of education, Lance and Keith finally got back to their movie, and by the time it was finished and they had eaten their highly average plane lunch, they had passed around four hours.

“One-fifth of our plane time down, Keith!”

“I can’t deal with much longer. That sandwich tasted like cardboard.”

“Well, yes, but can I interest you in watching...” Lance quickly scrolled through the available films, “ _ ‘Santa Claus Conquers the Martians’?” _

_ “ _ That sounds awful. Let’s watch it.” It was as awful as it sounded, Lance later finding that it had been voted one of the worst movies of all time. However, again, it passed time, and by hour seven of their flight Lance and Keith were both vaguely delirious, sugar-deprived and exhausted. You know, the kind of weary you get from being on a plane or a road trip or double maths.

That was when a flight attendant arrived at their seats, bearing much-needed coffee and cookies. He had a friendly face and yellow bandana pushing back his hair, and smiled at the two boys leaning on each other’s shoulder and head. 

“Can I get you guys anything?” the man asked. 

“Coffee!” both Keith and Lance said at the same time!

“Jinx!” yelled Lance, prompting Keith to mutter something about ‘he hasn’t changed, then’.

“Two coffees coming up.” The attendant, whom Keith and Lance ended up referring to as their saviour, poured them out and handed them to the yawning teens. “Enjoy. You two make a cute couple.”

“O-oh, we’re not-“ Lance started to tell him, but he was cut short as he walked on and started serving the man in front of them. He looked at Keith, making eye contact and pushing a hand through his hair uncomfortably. 

“It’s fine. I can see how he would have assumed, we were literally lying on top of each other.”

“Hey, man, I should tell you something.” Lance started suddenly after a brief silence, a guilty look on his face.

“What? Everything okay? Do you need me to help you hide a body?”

“No, idiot, I should apologise. I was totally awful to you in grade school. There was no reason for you to help me or hang out with me when I spoke to you yesterday, but you did. So thank you.”

“Oh! Uh, it’s fine. You weren’t that bad when we were kids.”

“I was. I was the most competitive person ever. And i basically pretended to have a rivalry with you because that’s, uh…’ Lance tailed off and started mumbling, scratching the back of his neck with his hand awkwardly.

“That’s what?”

“That’s, god, how do I say this, that’s how I used to deal with feelings for people. Like, crush-type feelings.”

“Oh. Wow, that’s… new.”

“Yeah. That was in seventh grade so if you want to forget about it and never speak of it again I can deal with that, but I thought you should know.”

“I don’t want to forget about it. I, uh, may have felt similarly. And, um. “ He laughed nervously. “I still do. “

Keith looked similarly uncomfortable with talking about feelings in these strange circumstances. “So, now what? What do we… do you still…” Keith also trailed off.

“I don’t know. I didn’t think I’d get this far.” The moment was broken as soon as Lance started quoting memes. Both boys started laughing, earning some shushes from surrounding passengers, trying to sleep. However, newly caffeinated and with lots to think about, Keith and Lance were not going to be sleeping any time soon. They lay back for a while in tranquil silence, before they both started watching separate movies and thinking.

Lance was, overall, very proud of himself. He had told his crush that he had had a crush on him in the past, with only a little stuttering, and got a positive response, before easing the tension with memes. This is what he had been waiting to do for a whole 36 hours, and it was a great feeling. And he knew that Keith had liked him in the past, too, which made butterflies attack Lance’s insides, as cheesy as that sounds. He also felt like tiny bees were attacking his chest. Burns hurt.

Keith was feeling a little less jubilant and more nervous. He knew that now, he was going to have to ask Lance out or this whole thing they had going would be forgotten, considering they went to different schools on opposite sides of the city. He started planning, knowing he would ask at the airport, but _how?_ _Ugh,_ Keith thought, _feelings are gross._

The rest of the flight passed quickly after that. Caffeine wears off eventually, and once it did, Keith and Lance were out of it for the rest of the flight. When they awoke to the wheels of the plane touching down in Houston, they were very well-rested and very nervous to talk to each other after sleeping on the fact that they both just confessed to liking each other. However, what was central in Lance’s mind was the prospect of seeing his parents again after eight weeks away. He frantically texted them as soon as they were allowed, and got a rapid and very apologetic response telling him that they were around twenty minutes away as they had been caught up with his younger sister’s school talent show and traffic was awful. 

“Are your parents here?” asked Lance, standing up to pull his carry-on bag down from the overhead lockers.

“Just my mom. Yeah, she’s just arrived at the airport but it might take her a while to find me.”

“Cool. Hey, here’s your stuff, let’s go! I need to stretch my legs!” Lance quickly passed Keith’s bag to him and helped him awkwardly shuffle out of their seats by grabbing his hand, although he probably didn’t need to. Keith smiled at him, and stretched out his arms in a yawn. Lance, easily flustered, found this absolutely adorable, and turned away to hide his blush, high on his cheeks. They walked slowly down the aisle of the plane and out into the midday sun. It was ridiculously hot and the sun was blinding, but it was lovely after such a long time in the New Zealand July winter. 

“Back in the USA. Yay, freedom!” Keith said sarcastically, but he was enjoying being home and surrounded by the Stars and Stripes that were everywhere. They walked into the terminal and to bag exchange in comfortable silence, taking everything in and thinking about the crazy past two days. They arrived at the bag collection place, and since his mom was still not in sight, he decided that now was the best time to ask Lance the question he’d wanted to in seventh grade and wanted to now.

“Hey, Lance?”

“Yes, Keith?” Lance stepped forward and yanked his suitcase off the conveyor belt, turning back to face him.

“I was just wondering, it’s okay if you don’t want to, if you maybe wanted to go out? With me? As a date thing?” Keith’s bags appeared just as he said this, and he walked over to get them, internally screaming and leaving a startled but relieved Lance behind him for a moment. When he got back to Lance, he was prepared for whatever answer he got.

“Uh, what?” Keith’s heart dropped. He apparently wasn’t as ready as he thought for a possible ‘no’.

“Do you want to go out with me on a date. Like i said it’s fine if you don’t, I just really like you and I think it would be nice, but if you-“

“Keith. Of course I do.” His face lit up. “What’s your number?” The two boys exchanged phone numbers, and just as they had put their phones away, Keith spotted his mom on the other side of the huge room. She hadn’t spotted them yet, and though he was very happy to see her, there was one thing he had hoped would happen.

“Keith?”

“Yeah?”

“Since you asked me out, I hope you won’t mind if I do this.” Lance stepped closer to Keith and placed his hand softly on the back of Keith’s neck. “Is this okay?”

“It’s more than okay.” He leaned in and pressed his lips against Lance’s. He felt a spark down his shoulder blades as Lance kissed back. His lips were soft and it was  _ so nice _ , but he pulled away after a few seconds. They both laughed softly, hands clasped together. After a few seconds of smiling and thinking about how they even got this far, Keith’s mom finally spotted them and Lance’s family arrived, almost running towards him through the crowd.

Lance broke away and ran towards them, ending up surrounded in a hug by many, many brothers and sisters. Keith walked over to his mom and embraced her, telling her quickly about the events of the last few days and promising to tell her more in the car. He locked eyes with Lance from across the room, and he beamed back.

“I’ll be just a second, Mom, I just have to say goodbye to someone.” Keith walked the few steps over to where Lance had pulled free of his family.

“See you, Keith. Text me later, okay?” Even though they had been together for two days straight, Lance was sad to leave Keith. They had been through a lot, and now they were dating? boyfriends? He didn’t know, but they had the future to figure that out.

“Of course. Bye, Lance.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I WROTE A KISS FOR THE FIRST TIME   
> IT WAS KIND OF UNCOMFORTABLE TO WRITE BUT WHATEVER GIVE ME ADVICE/FEEDBACK   
> I HOPE YOU ENJOYED READING THIS PIECE OF TRASH GOODBYE  
> I had to include some cute tshirts and also Krolia briefly mentioned
> 
> my tumblr is @athenaklance

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first voltron fic and first post on ao3 so I hope you like it!
> 
> follow me on tumblr at @athenaklance lmao there’s not much there


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